Brisbane Roar Academy player Lucas Herrington has been named in Brad Maloney’s Australian U-17 Men’s National Team for the upcoming AFC U-17 Asian Cup 2023™ Qualifiers.
Taking place in Shepperton, Victoria the AFC U-17 Asian Cup 2023™ Qualifiers will see the Joey’s take on Cambodia, China PR and the Northern Mariana Islands from 5 – 9 October 2022.
The final squad was selected following an intense two-week training camp in Melbourne, which featured three matches against Victorian NPL and A-League Men Youth Team opposition.
Maloney said the camp set a strong foundation for the program.
“Competition across all positions was strong, which made selecting the final 23-players challenging,” he said.
“In the end, we’ve chosen what we consider to be the best available squad for what will be a testing tournament format with three matches inside five days,” Maloney explained.
The AFC U-17 Asian Cup 2023™ Qualifiers marks the first international activity for the Joeys’ program since 2019.
“We don’t know a lot about the opposition because of the hiatus in the last couple of years but we expect challenging matches from all three teams,” Maloney said.
It also will be the first time Australia has hosted a Qualification Group or Qualifiers of any AFC Youth tournament since 2009.
The Qualifiers feature 43 Member Associations from across Asia vying for 16 available seats up who will battle for the coveted AFC U17 Asian Cup™ trophy next year.
The top four teams from AFC Asian Cup 2023™ will then qualify for the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup™ as the AFC representatives.
